Unsuitable Advertisements In The Magazine (Fortean Times)

[OneWingedBird]

There's an ad' on the back page of FT175 for a T-shirt that reads:

"Never trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die"

Can they get away with that?

Marie

 

[evilsprout]

It's nicked from South Park too.

To be honest most of the t-shirts are mind-bogglingly offensive, and I'd mistrust any retard who buys any of them and am ashamed that kind of cretin reads the mighty FT.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Well I think we can see which way the wearer of that one swings!

I think the FT must have serious difficulty finding advertisers if it
ends up trawling the gutters it does.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

To be honest most of the t-shirts are mind-bogglingly offensive, and I'd mistrust any retard who buys any of them and am ashamed that kind of cretin reads the mighty FT.

I have been eyeing the 'I am God You are scum' T shirt as:

1. I don't get into enough fights.

2. Its true (or, more accurately, it appears to be what people seem think my attitudes are - so I thought I'd play up to it ).

[edit: EvilSprout you do seem to have a low opinion of the FT advertisers and the target audience:

I agree to a certain degree, in the sense that I'm usually annoyed by the ads rather than persuaded to buy anything. But advertisers aren't stupid, and they wouldn't continue putting ads in FT if the weren't successful.

As much as we all hate to admit it, it must mean a significant number of FT readers are blokes resting between a game of Ultima Online, sat watching Star Trek in a cringingly tastelessly-sloganed t-shirt, holding a "hilariously"-shaped bong in one hand and a replica Frodo Baggins sword in the other.

That said while I have occasionally looked at some of the sites belonging to FT advertisers while looking for an amusing present I've never actually bought anything but as you say someone somewhere must as they continue to buy the space ]

Emps

 

[Anonymous]

AK47
When you absolutely, positively got to kill
every motherfucker in the room

Well... I'll go to the foot of our stairs!

We were just chatting about AK47's earlier, on the 'Iraq Aftermath' thread.

 

[TheOriginalCujo]

I've been eyeing the 'I'm only wearking black till they invent a darker colour' one.

Maybe I should reclaim the "Never trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die" T-shirt for women kind. After all, I usually take about 5 days and you really shouldn't trust me. I know people who have the scars to prove it.




Cujo

 

[Anonymous]

... but as you say someone somewhere must as they continue to buy the space

That's the bottom line, alright.

So, who's been buying the stuff in the dodgy adverts and what was it?

 

[evilsprout]

EvilSprout you do seem to have a low opinion of the FT advertisers and the target audience

I dunno, it just seems that we Forteans spend our energies making it clear we're intelligent, on the level people, and the admen for FT seem to think otherwise.

Like someone said on the other it's this kind of marketing that means the magazine'll always be next to Buffy monthly not New Scientist, which FT has much more in common with. Judging by the people on this board ads for books, non-sex/drugs gadgets etc would go down well. It's like someone's gone "that's a magazine for weirdos" and that's it. Back in the mid-90s they used to have ads for beer and ice cream and stuff... don't Forteans eat or drink any more?!

Though I concede market research as been done enough to make me believe it must represent a large enough amount of the readership. And while I have nothing against sci-fi fans, gamers or people who choose to do drugs (although I've always thought spending a fortune on periphanalia would be like me spending a fortune on elaborate beer glasses), the mix of all that to the exclusion of more mainstream ads means the magazine loses credibility, and may put off many readers.

I guess it's just a bloody hard mag to market at the end of the day, and it may just be they throw their hands up and go "well, it's a bit like Bizarre..."

And those t-shirts are mainly for the "look at me, aren't I clever cos my t-shirt says 'fuck'/has drug reference/is offensive to a section of society!" brigade.

 

[taras]

The only thing I ever bought after seeing an ad in FT was "New Lands" (Fort) from Bluesnake (probably widely discussed elsewhere). About a year later, I started receiving gay porn catalogues, which was great, because my parents both have the same initial as me. What fun we had opening those when I came home from school :cross eye

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

EvilSprout:

I guess it's just a bloody hard mag to market at the end of the day, and it may just be they throw their hands up and go "well, it's a bit like Bizarre..."

I agree and while I have never thought that the ads reflect poorly on us or imply anything about the Forteans out there I must admit to being suprised when the dirty phone lines and bong ads cropped up - it was like they'd got a special deal on a job lot of ads from Bizarre.

I don't really mind that most of the ads don't interest me (although that one for the first serie of Babylon 5 certainly sparks my interest - I'll put my hands up now to being a nerd) but I am disappointed at the rather unoriginal thinking behind it - as you say:

It's like someone's gone "that's a magazine for weirdos" and that's it.

I may be wrongly characterising the readership but I would imagine that the FT readership probably bought more books and films than your average punter and that companies that attempted to engage us that way would reap the rewards.

Flicking through this issue we have:

Computer game - ~shrug~
Lego - this only makes me think modern lego is rubbish
DVDs (interesting selection of films but it could be a bit more targetted).
Become a writer - hmmmmmm
An ioniser
Computer game
Mobile phone ringtones and stuff - why?
Drug paraphenalia

Now I'd never really noticed the lack of ads in the longer articles - I'd rather they spread them around a bit more. Anyway back to the ads:

FT back issues
FT mugs

Then a another big gap.

Then the smaller ads:

Swords, drugs, name a star, goth jewellery and Dianetics.

Pheromones, herbal viagra, mind powers, drug seeds and the massager/vibrator.

Then a film ad on the back page - a sci fi.

------
Thats not actually too bad - some of the ads are a bit odd (the mobile phone ones, the "massager" and all the drugs stuff) and I wonder how they do business. The how to be a writer and the ioniser seem a little 'low rent' pos. just because of the poor quality of the ads themselves.

If that keeps the costs down then I have no objections to that mix really. I'd rather have a page of Amazon focusing on some recent films and books of Fortean interest but overall it isn't too bad.

I think the question of ads and things comes up in the FT survey but if it helped FT give more detailled information to their ad department I'd be happy to answer a much more indepth survey - either paper or online will do.

Emps

 

[oll_lewis]

At least David sutton has convinced the ad dept to get rid of the "spank line" adverts.
We should give the man a pat on the back for that Aparetly FT have no conttrol over the daverts that get put in the mag... thats all down to IFG we can probably expect this kind of advert to continue when the stable mates are Viz, Jack and bizzare...

 

[OneWingedBird]

Well it wouldn't be so bad if some of them were actually funny, but really they're just totally unsubtle.

I think if I saw someone wearing any of these I'd just think 'What a prick'.

Marie

 

[escargot]

"Never trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die"

That's a poor slogan anyway. Not succinct, witty, topical or satirical.

Saw this recently- 'FCEK- The Irish Connection' which made me laugh out loud.

 

[Anome]

Two I've seen locally, that I quite like (only available from a chain of fashion outlets in Sydney as far as I know)

I've Found Jesus!
He was behind the sofa the whole time.

and

Roll me in honey, and throw me to the lesbians.

Which reminds me of another:

My parents don't know I'm a lesbian.

Anyway, I find some of them amusing. (I saw the FCEK one somewhere, maybe in FT itself?) But many of them are just outright offensive. (With some of them, this is what makes them amusing, but with others, it's just stupid.)

 

[Mama_Kitty]

Re: Am I the only one who thinks this is suspect?

There's an ad' on the back page of FT175 for a T-shirt that reads:

"Never trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die"

Can they get away with that?

Marie

That's a quote from a serial killer and I'm just off to find out which one . . .

My fave has always been "He's not the Messiah he's a very naughty boy!"
*Slinks off dragging black humour in a sack behind her*

 

[evilsprout]

The only thing I ever bought after seeing an ad in FT was "New Lands" (Fort) from Bluesnake (probably widely discussed elsewhere). About a year later, I started receiving gay porn catalogues, which was great, because my parents both have the same initial as me. What fun we had opening those when I came home from school :cross eye

Exactly the same thing happened to me when I bought Fortean Studies, although I can raise your stakes cos I've got the same name as my dad!

 

[evilsprout]

Re: Re: Am I the only one who thinks this is suspect?

That's a quote from a serial killer and I'm just off to find out which one . . .

Doesn't Mr Garrison say it in South Park The Movie?

 

[Mama_Kitty]

Re: Re: Re: Am I the only one who thinks this is suspect?

Doesn't Mr Garrison say it in South Park The Movie?

I'm sure it's a serial killer quote too, but I can't find anything anywhere, so I might just have to chalk it up to tuning in to to the Jungian group consciousness! I did see the SP movie, but that was only recently and I'm sure I'd already read that a serial killer wrote it in his diaries. It's going to prey on my fragile mind until I find out though. I wish books were indexed by memorable quotes as well as names, dates and places! Funnily enough it doesn't appear in my OE Dictionary of quotations!

 

[Anonymous]

I loathe those T-shirts. Clearly the ad department assume that the readers of FT are humour-impaired tossers, who use words like "wacky", "zany" and "I'm a bit mad, me!!!" to describe themselves. Charles Manson, eh? What a geezer! Ed Gein - farking hilarious, haw haw haw!

I don't see the point of having so many and varied 'hilarious' serial-killer-related slogans when they could all be replaced with one catchphrase: "I don't have a sense of humour so I bought this T-shirt instead".

 

[Anonymous]

And those t-shirts are mainly for the "look at me, aren't I clever cos my t-shirt says 'fuck'/has drug reference/is offensive to a section of society!" brigade.

its to try to prove that thier mums dont dress them any more.

 

[Anonymous]

Most likly the advertiseing is exactly worked out and what gets in there is what the ususal audience wants to buy..sad but true.

 

[Anonymous]

isn't the 'don't trust anything that bleeds for fiver days thing...' really old? i seem remember hearing that one in school and laughing even though at the time i didn't have a clue what the hell it was on about

 

[Anonymous]

Having purchased Fortean Studies I received the same catalogues as well.

Not sure why they automatically send those as they don't ever send any other ones.

My favourite one appears in UFO magazine a the moment. I think the editors have been asleep. They sell a poster called "Forbidden Planet" on the order form, based on the film, but if you look at the picture it is actually called "Forbidden Plant" and is full of drug references and pictures!

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

While it might sound like something a serial killer would say, it's a reference to menstruation ie: Don't trust women.

 

[OneWingedBird]

If you really have to wear that kind of thing then the store Grin (Leeds, Manchester, Elsewhere?) do a much better range.

You can get 'Heavily medicated for the safety of the masses', 'I used to care but now I take a pill for that' and my favourite, a spoof advert for Prozac in the style of a 1950's soap powder commercial 'Makes everything even whiter'

Marie

 

[Mama_Kitty]

While it might sound like something a serial killer would say, it's a reference to menstruation ie: Don't trust women.

Had figured as much, thank you! I'm sure it was one of the woman-hating serial killers, but I still can't remember who and can't find the quote anywhere.

 

[Anonymous]

on the subject of mysoginy (sp? just incase i've completely misspelt that so no one can figure what it is the words meant to mean the hatred of women) i remember being told once by a woman which went:

how many men men does it ake to tile a bath room? one, if you slice him up thinnly.

i found this quite funny, but realised that if i told the joke as 'how many women does it take...' it would take on quite a sinister edge. strange that.

 

[StoryofE]

isn't the 'don't trust anything that bleeds for fiver days thing...' really old?

I had heard this saying a long time before South Park. Back in the 80's at least.

I will admit to getting a chuckle out of some of these shirts, but my fave is 'I'm only wearing black till they invent a darker color.'

Got a question: bottom row of the t shirt ad, between the prozac and Manson shirts, what or who is that? I've been puzzling over it for sometime now and I cannot figure out where I've seen this thing. Anybody know?

 

[Anonymous]

Do you mean the Rolf harris and Stylophone one?

I always wanted a stylophone as i have stated on this board on many occassions, only they were about £20 in the 1970's and so therefore only available to rich kids......................god, i want a stylophone

 

[StoryofE]

Who is Rolf Harris and what's a stylophone? I don't have a clue.